Page 18 - History of Christianity II- Textbook

Study Section 4: The Period of Orthodoxy, 1559-1622

4.1 Connect
Every once in a while, you will come across a believer who says he uses only the King James
Version of the Bible. It’s the only version he reads from and the only one permitted in his
church. He usually is extremely adamant about using only that version of the Bible. He
considers all other versions of the Bible as tainted and inaccurate. You every met a KJV ONLY
believer?

While the KJV is a beautiful version of the Bible, the version he is talking about was revised in 1760. The
language is Elizabethan English which was popularly spoken in those days and before. Many words have
changed their meaning since those times. We don’t normally use “THEE” and “THOU” when we refer to
another person. And then there is the problem of other languages. You might speak a different
language than English and need a copy of God’s Word in your native tongue. That copy certainly would
not be a King James Version of the Bible! Does that mean that your copy is tainted and not God’s Word?
Today let’s find out about this and other developments as we move through the history of the church….

4.2 Objectives
1. The student should be able to describe the period of orthodoxy and how doctrinal differences
were being resolved.

2. We will see the origin of the Baptist denomination and why it came into being.

3. The student should be able to describe why King James authorized the translation of the KJV Bible
and how it was translated. The student should also be able to explain why newer translations use older
manuscripts that are more reliable.

4.3 The Period of Orthodoxy, 1559-1622

Many of the Protestant denominations following the Elizabethan Religious Settlement felt that
the Anglican Church was much too Catholic in its liturgical practices. These Protestant groups
also wanted to distinguish themselves as a denomination from other Protestant
denominations.

“Protestant scholasticism” was academic theology practiced by Protestant theologians using
the scholastic method during the era of Calvinist and Lutheran orthodoxy from the 16th to 18th
centuries. Protestant scholasticism developed out of the need to clearly define and defend church
doctrine against the Catholic Church and other Protestant churches. It refers to both Lutheran
scholasticism and Reformed scholasticism. Anglicanism never developed a scholastic theology; however,
Anglican writers in the 1600s studied early Christian writings to prove that Anglicanism had faithfully
followed the teachings and practices of the early Church.

Protestant scholasticism "became the dominant organizational approach to teaching theology in the
academies" before its influence began to wane in the 17th and 18th centuries.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_scholasticism)

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